What is meant by party neutrality?

The Church’s mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, not to elect politicians. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is neutral in matters of party politics. This applies in all of the many nations in which it is established.

The Church does not:

Endorse, promote or oppose political parties, candidates or platforms.
Allow its church buildings, membership lists or other resources to be used for partisan political purposes.
Attempt to direct its members as to which candidate or party they should give their votes to. This policy applies whether or not a candidate for office is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Attempt to direct or dictate to a government leader.

The Church does:

Encourage its members to play a role as responsible citizens in their communities, including becoming informed about issues and voting in elections.
Expect its members to engage in the political process in an informed and civil manner, respecting the fact that members of the Church come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences and may have differences of opinion in partisan political matters.
Request candidates for office not to imply that their candidacy or platforms are endorsed by the Church.
Reserve the right as an institution to address, in a nonpartisan way, issues that it believes have significant community or moral consequences or that directly affect the interests of the Church.

In the United States, where nearly half of the world’s Latter-day Saints live, it is customary for the Church at each national election to issue a letter to be read to all congregations encouraging its members to vote, but emphasizing the Church’s neutrality in partisan political matters.

Relationships With Government

Elected officials who are Latter-day Saints make their own decisions and may not necessarily be in agreement with one another or even with a publicly stated Church position. While the Church may communicate its views to them, as it may to any other elected official, it recognizes that these officials still must make their own choices based on their best judgment and with consideration of the constituencies whom they were elected to represent.

Modern scriptural references to the role of government: Doctrine and Covenants, Section 134

Political Party Participation of Presiding Church Officers

Updated January 22, 2019

In addition, the First Presidency letter issued on June 16, 2011, which is a re-statement and further clarification of the Church’s position on political neutrality. The policy applies to all full-time General Authorities, General Auxiliary Presidencies, mission presidents, and temple presidents and should limit their personal participation in all political party activities. The policy is not directed to full-time Church employees.

"General Authorities and general officers of the Church and their spouses and other ecclesiastical leaders serving full-time should not personally participate in political campaigns, including promoting candidates, fundraising, speaking in behalf of or otherwise endorsing candidates, and making financial contributions.

"Since they are not full-time officers of the Church, Area Seventies, stake presidents and bishops are free to contribute, serve on campaign committees and otherwise support candidates of their choice with the understanding they:

Are acting solely as individual citizens in the democratic process and that they do not imply, or allow others to infer, that their actions or support in any way represent the church.
Will not use Church stationery, Church-generated address lists or email systems or Church buildings for political promotional purposes.
Will not engage in fundraising or other types of campaigning focused on fellow Church members under their ecclesiastical supervision."

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Neutrality is the tendency not to side in a conflict (physical or ideological),[1][2][3] which may not suggest neutral parties do not have a side or are not a side themselves. In colloquial use neutral can be synonymous with unbiased. However, bias is a favoritism for some side,[4][5] distinct of the tendency to act on that favoritism.

Neutrality is distinct (though not exclusive) from apathy, ignorance, indifference, doublethink, equality,[6] agreement, and objectivity. Apathy and indifference each imply a level of carelessness about a subject, though a person exhibiting neutrality may feel bias on a subject but choose not to act on it. A neutral person can also be well-informed on a subject and therefore need not be ignorant. Since they can be biased, a neutral person need not feature doublethink (i.e. accepting both sides as correct), equality (i.e. viewing both sides as equal), or agreement (a form of group decision-making; here it would require negotiating a solution on everyone's opinion, including one's own which may not be unbiased). Objectivity suggests siding with the more reasonable position (except journalistic objectivity), where reasonableness is judged by some common basis between the sides, such as logic (thereby avoiding the problem of incommensurability). Neutrality implies tolerance regardless of how disagreeable, deplorable, or

In moderation and mediation, neutrality is often expected to make judgments or facilitate dialogue independent of any bias, emphasizing on the process rather than the outcome.[6] For example, a neutral party is seen as a party with no (or a fully disclosed) conflict of interest in a conflict,[7] and is expected to operate as if it has no bias. Neutral parties are often perceived as more trustworthy, reliable, and safe.[3][8]

Alternative to acting without a bias, the bias of neutrality itself is the expectation upon the Swiss government (in armed neutrality),[9] and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (in non-interventionism).[3]

Neutrality has been criticized many times as an unethical option, due that it was a position that, directly or indirectly, ended up favoring those who harmed others, or maintained a state of injustice (see You are either with us, or against us).
- Italian writer Dante, in his Divine Comedy, says in Canto 3 that people and angels that who were not rebels nor faithful to their God, but stood apart, were condemned to be sting eternally by waspes and gadflies. Theodore Roosevelt, quoting Dante's work in his America and the World War (1915), said "Dante reserved a special place of infamy in the inferno for those base angels who dared side neither with evil nor with good".[10]
- By other side, South African priest Desmond Tutu said "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor".[11]
Woodrow Wilson: "Neutrality is a negative word. It does not express what America ought to feel. We are not trying to keep out of trouble; we are trying to preserve the foundations on which peace may be rebuilt."[12]
In the Supreme Court decision Southworth v. The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System based on the United States Constitution's First Amendment, the court decided some funding decisions should be made through a neutral viewpoint.[6]
The Oxford English Dictionary documents that by at least 1897 "neutral" meant applying the rules to the facts, as in football "Neutral linesmen shall officiate in all games."[13]

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^ "the definition of neutral". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
^ "Definition of NEUTRALITY". www.Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
^ a b c "Neutrality - IFRC". www.IFRC.org. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
^ "the definition of bias". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
^ "Definition of BIAS". www.Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
^ a b c "Associated Students of Madison, Viewpoint Neutrality in Funding Decisions". Wisc.edu. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
^ "What is neutral party? definition and meaning". BusinessDictionary.com. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
^ Staff, Investopedia (21 May 2008). "Emotional Neutrality". Investopedia.com. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
^ "Armed neutrality". SwissInfo.ch. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
^ "The Hottest Places in Hell Are Reserved for Those Who in a Period of Moral Crisis Maintain Their Neutrality – Quote Investigator". Retrieved 2022-05-16.
^ Unexpected News: Reading the Bible with Third World Eyes (1984) by Robert McAfee Brown, p. 19
^ "Woodrow Wilson Quotes". BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
^ "neutral, n. and adj.", B.I.3.b. OED Online, Oxford University Press, June 2017, www.oed.com/view/Entry/126457. Accessed 14 October 2017 (1897 Whitaker's Almanack 644/1 [Association Football] "Neutral linesmen shall officiate in all games.").